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Booking

Archive

It’s August now, and things have been great since the last time I posted. Gigs have been solid, working with my homie Mark B locally at various venues, and working with Alex Falk on tracks. DTFAA July went well, and here in a couple days, we’ve got the second 2011 edition of Don’t Techno For An Answer, featuring a couple South Carolinians, Klaws and Konstantin. For those of you in Knoxville, give it a peep this Saturday, 8/20. I’ll be playing alongside Alex Falk.

Grey People invited me to Unify in Nashville last weekend. It was a six-room party, with a mix of genres, and went exceptionally well. GP hooked it up with a 2-hour timeslot, which was perfect. Had a killer set for a lot of new faces. We kept the room dancing all night, with a steady flow of people streaming through for bathrooms/drinks, only to get stuck wiggling it on the dancefloor. Apparently we made such an impression that Nashville Scene mentioned our names and room as a highlight of the night.

Next weekend (8/27) I’ll be in Atlanta for Archaic Revival. It’s primarily a psy-trance party, as far as the main room goes, but we intend on holding it down proper in the techno room, and expecting a load of our friends to attend. Alex Falk and Greg Alan are also on the bill with me, and it’ll be going into the late hours, so I doubt we’ll be leaving until sometime around sunrise. I love those gigs. Each of us are slated for two hour slots. Expect great things.

Coming up in September, I’m bringing out Matt Wooddy aka Inferno of Heat Promotions from ATL. That’s going to be DTFAA, September 17th. After that, Equinox at Deerfields in Asheville. 2-day campout with a variety of great music and artists including a bunch of the Tennessee Techno homies: Grey People, Piltdown Sound, Greg Alan, Mark B, and myself. Also worth checking on our “chillout” stage are Futexture and Perileyes during the daytime, and Paramnesia, whom we had play for us at Headroom when it was still kicking. Futexture has an all-original live set of dubby, downtempo electronica, and will definitely fit the daytime vibe of Deerfields. We booked him for the Kyle Geiger / Kilowatts double headliner event earlier this year, and I couldn’t say better things. Do it.

Progress on Proper Trax 002 is going well, with most of the tracks confirmed and testers being sent to respected DJs and producers for feedback. Depending on how things go, you should expect a November release for the 12 inch. I’ve got some real kickers in store.

In the meantime, I should post Part Three of the Saturday Jam Session from way back in April! Its the final part of that epic mix session, and features a split of techno and house for over two hours of music. I’d drop something fresher for you, but unfortuantely I’ve had exceedingly bad luck with snagging a good live recording of the gigs. Always forgetting to switch to Line In, power goes out, rec out clips, or some other lameness. That’s how it goes though.

Been lazy on the charts this month. Haven’t got much new vinyl, but worth a mention is the Vanguard Sound, Vol. 1 available on Hakim Murphy’s Machining Dreams imprint. Solid trax from DJ Spider, Amir Alexander, and others. Much love to the Vanguard Sound crew. Raw shit there.

It’s been a little over a month since the last site update. I’m bad like that. Too many toes in too many cakes or something. Anyway, a few “status updates.”

Detroit and DEMF were great this year. The Bang Tech 12 party went pretty well, although I had some unfortunate cartridge/tonearm issues and poor sound in my room, which made my set less than optimal this time around. But its always fun to perform in that city…lots of real heads that have open minds. Also sold some records for PROPER TRAX, and got them into the hands of some of my personal production and DJ heroes. No name dropping here, but it was pretty fucking awesome and primo timing.

Highlights include:

Bang Tech 12 15 Anniversary party

Arthur Oskan live set the Beretta showcase. Akufen was solid, too…but I was hoping for more of his micro/chopped sound, not so much deep, soul house.

Marcel Dettmann & Radio Slave B2B at the CLR event. Really powerful mix that went all over the place with house, tech-house, techno, dubstep, and even some classic electro cuts like “Numbers.” This was the shit, needless to say, and while Collabs was solid and big, Dettmann and Edwards were just plain fun and grimy.

Maetrik put on a really good set at the Works on Sunday night, but the rest of that show was “meh” at best. As I reconfirm every year, yet always end up getting dragged anyway, the Works blows. Fuck that place.

Shit Show 2 with the Gary Springs Hunting Club was intense. One of the nuttiest and most “free” parties I’ve attended. Will do again Petting zoos. TV Bar is one of the BEST on the other hand.

DEMF DJs who hit me with damn good jams and skills and best left an imprint in my head over a month later: Ryan Elliot, Steve Rachmad, Ben Klock, Marcel Dettmann, Detroit Techno Militia 5×5, Claude Young, Kerri Chandler, Aril Brikha, Metro Area. Admittedly, I missed a lot more of the festival and some of the performances that I wanted to catch this year. Stayed pretty busy at the off-site parties this year and tended to get what little rest I had in the early afternoon. Sven Vath was definitely a performance, but I had to catch Klock and Dettmann moreso. Really wanted to give Beardyman a shot, but couldn’t get space. Missed Ramadanman, most of District 909 (but the little I heard was excellent), Reference, and a lot of others. Disappointments include Villalobos (zzz trax, endless socializing, floppy subs, even let a record play out completely while he was chatting it up…), Adam Beyer (Beatport guido douche tech-house, definitely “played to the crowd” which was pretty gelled up at that stage this year…he’s killed the last two times I’ve heard him), and Fatboy Slim ruining every stage but the underground with his electro rave, 150db schlock that seemed to permeate the entirety of Hart Plaza.

I’m forgetting some stuff, as I don’t want to write a novel. Overall, this was the best year out of four for me. I got a lot out of it, met a ton of new people, heard some awesome music, partied like it was 2099, and got promo Proper Trax into some really good hands both famous and notsomuch.

I also wanted to give a shout out to FBK and Chris Mitchell, whom I both met in person while out there. Been talking to them online before, but it was really good to share some time talking. These guys are up and coming, doing some really amazing work. Check out their music.

Oh, and I totally lost my voice by Monday morning. Literally couldn’t talk. Too much chat, smokes, yelling, and all that good stuff I assume I think something was telling me “shut the fuck up for a minute, Will.”

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Next up, Split Personalities EP on Proper Trax has done well in its first month. Copies are selling steadily, especially considering my promo is basically no promo. Hand out a few to some DJs, hit up a few boards, and rinse the music. Couple highlights: DJ Psycho of Detroit Techno Militia playedThe Funnel’s “Bake Sale” at DEMF. And legendary Berlin record shop Hardwax sold out of all its copies. If things continue to go this way, we should be out of stock within a month or two. So get a copy if you haven’t already.

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Currently, I’m working hard on a lot of new material. I throw some teases and preliminary progress on my Soundcloud page, although most of what is up there are older revisions. For a change of pace, I’ve also done a couple remix/edits of classic dance tracks including a remix of Chic’s “I Want Your Love” and Billy Ocean’s “Caribbean Queen.” These are a little outside my normal realm of production, but they have done an excellent job of making dancefloors jump. As usual, although I don’t typically share my material freely online, all you gotta do is ask…hit me or the label up : will.azada @ gmail.com or proper @ propertrax.com – I’m always looking to connect you!

Also, Grey People drove from Nashville to join me in the studio for a weekend in June. One of the best studio sessions I’ve had ever. We collaborate well, and accomplished a lot. Look out for what we’ve got in store in the next few months. Expect a teaser soon. Oh, and here’s a free Proper Trax promo mix we did while he was over. Tag-team, grab-bag vinyl set using my records. It’s a little drifty at times, since we just busted it out spur of the moment, but it holds up nicely, and really is a lot of fun and representative of what’s in my vinyl crate at the moment. For July, we’ll be using his records.

He ended up leaving with my Juno 106. It just didn’t see the use I wanted to give it. Large synths just don’t fit my workflow…I’m a desktop jockey, what can I say? Love my MFB-522 and FRXS because they sit in front of my lazy ass. Guess I’ll have to find a nice desktop analog poly to replace it. Have to say, he started busting out some choice material a few days later, and I’m a little “gaaaaaaah, why did I not keep it?” haha, glad its in good hands and being used more though! Best to keep it in the “family” so to speak.

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Gigs have been steady, can’t say I’ve been wanting really. As far as Knoxville goes, at least. The Headroom crew and I have been throwing some good events and I’m really looking forward to the DTFAA Reunion show this Saturday (July 9). The first one was huge, and I kind of regret not keeping it going through last year and before now, but Headroom itself got to be a lot for us to handle and it sort of replaced DTFAA as an event. But this one is looking like its going to be thick, with a lot of RSVPs coming through so far for a small spot like Longbranch. Other than that, lots of daytime and outdoor stuff, an insanely destructive slum house party, and I’m happy to be a part of the new One More Chance… Sunday weekly at Sapphire with homeboy Mark B, which is a spot where I can go a little funky, fun, and deep. Too often I feel obligated to bang out techno and more jacking house in this town, to appeal to the sensibilities of the “bang it out, melt my face” contingent, but more “pure” house is where my heart is a lot of days.

Beyond that, bookings past July at Aug. 20′s DTFAA, and TOUCH Samadhi’s Equinox festival in Asheville on September 23-24. I’m usually game to get out of town and perform, if interested in booking, you know where to go: will.azada @ gmail.com

Last weekend was great. Sunday Social, a day party that my buddy Squarewave helped throw didn’t have the biggest crowd, but it had a great vibe, and its always nice to toss down during the daylight hours and just get smashed at the bar, with no real worries in sight I was booked inside from 6:30-8:30pm, and while I was originally planning on rinsing a little more tough techno, I decided not to muck with Serato or CDs and just rinse the wax I had brought. I’ve really yet to give a good couple hours to a lot of the records I had purchased over the last year, so I took this time to show off a lot of the vinyl exclusives I’ve picked up, in addition to some great oldies that I ALWAYS keep in the crate. Featuring a load of raw, underground cuts of analog-styled tech-house, dub tech, acid, and tribal. Also mixed in some of the new Proper Trax material from myself and Grey People and Lee Crowe.

I hooked up the recorder and let it rip. But I forgot to switch it to line in and recorded through the stereo microphones the entire time. While initially a little bummed about not getting this (in my opinion) great mix in super clean high quality, after giving it a thorough listen I decided I quite like the raw, gritty, reverby vibe that the mic recording brought to it all. May not have worked so well with the cleaner, high-production digital stuff you’re used to, but between the crowd talking, a few of my chats, and the sound of room it really worked, especially for this style of music. Gives it an extra live feel to it. I may have to start recording through the mic more often.

I took the time to tracklist everything, so if you want to go digging, have at it. Be aware a lot of these releases are NOT available digitally, and may be out of stock at your normal record outlets, but with a bit of digging and perhaps a significant amount of cash, you’ll find them. Can’t sleep on some of this stuff, that’s for sure. That’s the way the industry has gone though, super-limited presses of 300-500 are still high-risk. But I do it because I love it. Oh and buy my shit.